Sly Bailey will receive a pay-off of nearly £1m after stepping down from
Trinity Mirror with immediate effect on Friday, months earlier than planned.

Mrs Bailey announced her resignation as chief executive of the publisher in May, ahead of a shareholder rebellion over her £1.7m a year pay packet.

At the time the company, whose newspapers include the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, said Mrs Bailey would work until the end of the year in order to give it time to recruit her replacement.

However, she left the company on Friday, just one month into her contractual notice period. Trinity’s group finance director, Vijay Vaghela, will assume Mrs Bailey’s duties her until a permanent appointment is made.

Mrs Bailey’s contract means will receive just over £688,000 in lieu of salary and more than £228,000 of pension upon her departure.

In the nine years since Mrs Bailey took the helm of Trinity, the firm, which also publishes The People, The Daily Record and 130 regional newspapers, she has earned £14m. The company’s share price has dropped 90pc over the same period.